Check it out... if you
adored the film and want a souvenir containing various songs needle-dropped
into the film.
Skip it... if you
have a greater interest in Tom Holkenborg’s original score than you do in the
pop and rap classics, as it’s a basically functional score that fails to offer
any highlights, display narrative cohesion, or even elicit rage over its 45
minutes on album.
For many years, actor Ryan Reynolds has
longed to play Deadpool; the smarmy, fourth wall breaking Marvel superhero.
He finally got his chance in 2009 in X-Men
Origins: Wolverine…only for him to have his mouth sewn shut. Not a great
way to portray the “Merc with the Mouth.” Reynolds lobbied hard to redeem
himself with a film loyal to the character’s R-rated, wisecracking, satirical
origins. Given the positive buzz, high box office grosses, and already
guaranteed sequel for Deadpool,
Reynolds and director Tim Miller appear to have succeeded.
Naturally,
a self-aware film like Deadpool is
bound to have numerous pop culture references, leaving wide open doors for placement
of pre-existing music. Among the songs included in the album are a couple rap
songs: Salt-N-Pepa’s “Shoop” and “X Gon’ Give It to Ya” by DMX, both of which
featured heavily in the film’s marketing. The album opens and closes with a
couple of 80s love ballads: “Angel of the Morning” by Juice Newton, and George
Michael’s “Careless Whisper,” which delightfully take the cheesiness factor to
the extreme. If you’re an uncultured young person like me, you may not
recognize the title of the song, but I assure you, you’ll recognize it the
moment you hear the saxy opening bar. Also included is Neil Sedaka’s “Calendar
Girls,” stretching the film’s musical references all the way back to the 60s,
as well as “Deadpool Rap,” written by a group called Teamheadkick, which
is…interesting. The “Deadpool Rap” notwithstanding, the songs are a varied but
entertaining bunch, almost evoking the music for Quentin Tarantino films in
their range of genres and their almost silly entertainment value.
The
score, however, leaves much to be desired. The music was composed by Tom
Holkenborg, who has contributed to a number of superhero films (The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, both Man of Steel and its upcoming sequel),
and seemingly has taken inspiration from the genre, referring to himself both
by his real name and his stage name Junkie XL. Holkenborg has skyrocketed into
the public eye as of late, working on numerous projects last year, including
critical darling Mad Max: Fury Road
and the Whitey Bulger biopic Black Mass.
While I had mixed feelings over Mad Max’s
score, I found more to appreciate from Black
Mass, and held it as a sign of the young composer’s development. However, Deadpool shows no such continuation, and
instead comes off as something Holkenborg dashed off in between work on larger
films.
The
score opens promisingly in “Maximum Effort,” in which retro-sounding
electronics bounce around schizophrenically before introducing the main theme.
Well, it’s sort of a theme. It’s really just the opening chords of Ozzy
Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” played with the same sound effects from the opening of
Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” It’s simplistic, and it’s likely to give many
people headaches from its obnoxiousness, but it looks like a gem once you get
through the rest of the score.
The
main theme receives little to no variation throughout the remaining 42 minutes, whilst much of the action music is bass-heavy pounding, alternately in a standard rock
rhythm and sustained notes of weightiness. A hint of melodic and dramatic
action arises near the end in “Going Commando,” only to be buried under
layers of synthetic muck. “Let’s Try to Kill Each Other” attempts to bring back
the classic string ostinati of mid-2000s Hans Zimmer, but at that point it’s
too little, too late. A tepid love theme is introduced on the mid-range strings,
first heard in “Back to Life,” where it just kinda sits there, slowly moving,
lacking the overly melodramatic punch of Holkenborg’s “Many Mothers” cue from Mad Max. It reappears a couple of times,
notably in “Four or Five Moments” and “A Face I Would Sit On,” the last two and
arguably the best two cues on the album, simply for providing a respite from
the bass region dissonance and percussion in favor of major-key optimism. In
between the action and the pleasant harmonies are stretches of dull ambience
that one barely notices and does little more than pad out the run-time. No
attempt is made at thematic development, narrative flow, or addressing the personalities
of the characters. Instead, Holkenborg primarily scores the action scenes, and
he scores them completely straight. The closest thing to irony to be found in
this music is the way the main theme echoes Osbourne and Jackson in style.
Now,
I’m sure some people will argue, “It’s Deadpool, what did you expect? He’s a
different kind of comic book character, he doesn’t need a big heroic theme!”
And I’m not saying he does. But an effort could have been made to address the
comedy of the character. Perhaps have a theme so over the top heroic that
Deadpool makes fun of it in the film. Or have an action cue with distinct
“Mickey Mousing” in it. There are X-Men in the film, why not drop a reference
to John Ottman or Henry Jackman’s themes from previous X-Men films? Alan
Silvestri did it in his last Night at the
Museum score, and the result was hilarious. Comedy films, particularly
films as self-aware and parodic as Deadpool
can serve as a gold mine for taking the music of that genre and jacking the
style up to the most hilarious extreme. Look to Elmer Bernstein’s score to Airplane! as a prime example. Let me
remind you, the album closes with
“Careless Whisper.” Surely a film that embraces corniness of that level
warrants an original love theme as equally ridiculous in its schmaltziness.
Instead, we have bare-bones, stock action music that relies on heavy-handed
percussion, synthetic loops, and rhythmic propulsion to achieve its goal. It’s
so blandly generic and nondescript that I almost wonder if that was Holkenborg’s
attempt at parodying action movie music, creating a soundscape intentionally
anonymous as a joke. If this happens to be the case, I missed the wink he
slipped us.
I
cannot in good faith recommend this score for anyone, but the songs are strong
enough (and importantly, stylish
enough) to carry the album. If you really enjoyed hearing those songs in the
film, the album may be worth the buy. Just do some heavy editing, for
Holkenborg has ceded The Merc with the Mouth’s musical
voice to the likes of DMX, Salt-N-Pepa, and George Michael. You can purchase Deadpool on Amazon or iTunes, here and here.
2.8
____
Additional notes about release: as mentioned in the review above, a variety of songs are included on the album. They are listed on the track-list below.
Track Listing
| 1. | Angel of the Morning (Juice Newton) | 4:12 |
| 2. | Maximum Effort | 2:08 |
| 3. | Small Disruption | 1:12 |
| 4. | Shoop (Salt-N-Pepa) | 4:08 |
| 5. | Twelve Bullets | 2:50 |
| 6. | Man In A Red Suit | 2:20 |
| 7. | Liam Neeson Nightmares | 1:56 |
| 8. | Calendar Girl (Neil Sedaka) | 2:37 |
| 9. | The Punch Bowl | 5:55 |
| 10. | Back To Life | 2:12 |
| 11. | Every Time I See Her | 0:54 |
| 12. | Deadpool Rap (Teamheadkick) | 3:25 |
| 13. | Easy Angel | 2:31 |
| 14. | Scrap Yard | 1:02 |
| 15. | This Place Looks Sanitary | 6:50 |
| 16. | Watership Down | 4:10 |
| 17. | X Gon' Give It To Ya (DMX) | 3:37 |
| 18. | Going Commando | 3:45 |
| 19. | Let's Try To Kill Each Other | 1:00 |
| 20. | Stupider When You Say It | 2:24 |
| 21. | Four Or Five Moments | 0:54 |
| 22. | A Face I Would Sit On | 3:07 |
| 23. | Careless Whisper (WHAM!) | 5:02 |
| Total Album Time: | 68:11 |
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